By Jane Thornthwaite
Parliamentary Secretary for Student Support and Parent Engagement
March 15, 2013

VICTORIA - Education is a key issue for many British Columbian families, and our government shares this priority. Our goal is to offer the best education possible for our young people.

As Parliamentary Secretary for Student Support and Parent Engagement to the Minister of Education, I have travelled to schools across the province. I have met and listened to students, parents, trustees, administrators, and education stakeholders, including Parent Advisory Committees. I've met some amazing people whose incredible ideas will help to strengthen our education system.

We recently launched Discover Your School, a new website that makes it easier for families to learn about B.C. schools, and we released Toward Better Communication, a report that shares the great ideas and thoughts parents have on improving parental engagement in education.

Parents told me they want new and better ways to communicate with their school community. They want more frequent and flexible face-to-face time with teachers and some concrete ideas on how they can contribute to their child's success in school. They are also seeking to know more than they currently do about their child's learning experience and how their child is doing in school. Learning about education from a parents' perspective helps us continue to build an education system that fully supports teachers, parents and children.

Through our engagement and outreach to parents, we found they needed an easier way to get information about B.C. schools to help them make educational decisions for their children. Discover Your School is in response to that. Parents' and stakeholders' input helped shape the layout, design and content of the new website. Discover Your School makes it simpler for parents to get information such as parent and student satisfaction surveys, class size numbers, number of French immersion and StrongStart programs as well as results from provincial exams and the Foundation Skills Assessment. Information on how to join a Parent Advisory Committee is also available.

This website is just the start. We will be collecting user feedback and suggestions to ensure the site continually reflects the needs of parents and stakeholders. For example, the site could also incorporate additional info such as what extracurricular and skills training programs are offered at individual schools.

We know that parent engagement is one of the most important predictors of a child's success in their learning. We want to ensure that nothing stands in the way of that engagement, and we want to support parents in learning about, and connecting with, their school communities.

We will continue to work together to improve our education system and give our children every advantage to successfully pursue their educational goals.

Have a look at Discover Your School and let us know your feedback: http://www.discoveryourschool.gov.bc.ca

And here's a link to read more about what parents have to say about engaging in their child's learning: http://engage.bcedplan.ca/toward-better-communications/

Media Contact:

Government Communications and Public Engagement
Ministry of Education
250 356-5963